As I sit in an airport, waiting for my flight home, I find
myself without my usual entourage. The
friends that I’ve been with every hour of every day for the past year have
dispersed and aren’t with me physically anymore. It’s easy for me to get sad, feel lonely, and
start reminiscing about the past. And
while it’s fun to sulk for a few minutes, it’s not a place I want to camp. I don’t believe God sustained me through an
amazing year to have me return to America and wish I was back in the past. I know we go through different seasons in our
lives and that God is in the midst of every one of those if we seek Him
out. I guess my fear is that the future,
my future, won’t be as exciting as this past year was. I worry God won’t be as loud or apparent,
that friends won’t be as close or intimate, and that the adventure won’t be as
fun or challenging. And these
worries….are just that…worries!
Worrying about these things is my way of trying to get
control and plan my own way, protect my future, and trust myself. But this past year I gave those things
up. I traded in my idea of what
adventure is for God’s idea of what adventure is….and it blew me away. Instead of trying to make my own adventure or
even trying to replicate what God brought me through this past year, I want to
trust that the adventure He has for my life isn’t over. That it doesn’t lie in a country, a mission
organization, or a volunteer project; but that it lies in a person….His
son. The same life-giving power that I
saw across the world lies within me and I can live it out no matter the
location or situation….
Eastern Europe, or the jungle in Asia, you still carry the same Spirit within
you. You don’t have to travel across the
world to know our Creator. Many of you
who are reading this, helped to send me on this journey. And I am so grateful for everything that you
gave and how you supported me throughout this year. While I wouldn’t trade any of the experiences
I had, I know you don’t have to go on a trip like this to experience God. I believe that we currently live in one of
the hardest mission fields on the planet. How do we live out a Christ centered life, a life that speaks of Jesus,
in the Western culture we are so ingrained in? The answer: I don’t exactly
know. I do believe that it starts with
people who are willing to go against the grain, to stand up for something they
believe in, to stop pushing down what the Holy Spirit is speaking to them and
start acting in ways that will earn them the title…”crazy”. We’ve lived in and OF the world for long
enough. God doesn’t want more people who
talk about what’s wrong with the church; He has plenty of people that do
that. What He wants is people that will
act; He wants people that are willing to count everything as a loss for the
sake of knowing Him. Now that’s a challenge……that’s
an adventure!
